


Starstruck

by Skull_Bearer



Category: Carrie - Stephen King, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Catholicism, Child Abuse, Crossover, Domestic Violence, Don't worry they deserve it, F/M, Gender Dysphoria, M/M, Religious Fanaticism, Slurs, Teenaged Anne, Teenaged Eddie, Trans Male Character, Transitioning, carrie au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-08-11 12:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16475576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skull_Bearer/pseuds/Skull_Bearer
Summary: Eddie dips his fingers in the blood, and flicks it across his forehead once, twice, three times. “I baptize you,” he trembles, “Eddie Brock. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”God didn't hear his prayer.But Eddie is starting to think something else did.





	1. Baptism

**** Eddie stares at the mirror. Elizabeth stares back. 

Okay. “This is a fucking awful idea.” He tells her, half under his breath. 

Nothing. He blinks. She blinks. It’s an awful idea. But Eddie can’t even remember a time when his ideas weren’t all awful, so this- might be the best. Still awful. Still the best.

“I really hate you.” He reminds the reflection. Her face is twisted up and ugly, spitting hate back through the mirror. “Stupid fucking bitch.”

The scissors catch the light and gleam. He’d sharpened them  beforehand because if he’s going to make a huge fucking mistake, he’s going to do it  _ right _ .

Especially if it’s murder.

The scissors  _ snick _ as he opens them. Okay. Okay. He takes three deep breaths, and his hands slowly stop shaking. Okay. He holds them up, and Elizabeth’s scissors catch a lock of her dark blonde hair, slide up until there’s barely an inch of hair left. Eddie grins.  _ Yeah, I’m in control today, bitch. _

The scissors bite down, and the curl of hair spirals down into the sink. His hand trembles, he puts the scissors down. Tugs on the tiny lock of hair. Elizabeth’s long hair’s never seen scissors, now there’s a little tuft out of place. Okay.

“Ready to die, bitch?” He hisses to the mirror. Picks up the scissors again.

The scissors bite down, again and again and again. The song of sharp blades cutting through hair blends with the soft, soundless sigh of hair falling to the ground, to the sink. There’s a shock of pain as he manages to catch the edge of an ear, but he doesn’t pull back, doesn’t stop. The blood trickles down the side of his head, pools in the hollow of his ear. 

Finally, he finishes with a quick, ragged cut over his head, trying to keep it even. The scissors ring out against the sink as he drops them. His hands are shaking so hard, Eddie closes his eyes, trying to even out his staggered, desperate breathing; he pushes his hands through his hair-

God, it feels so  _ light _ . Soft and spiky, like cat fur. He rubs it back and forth, enjoying the soft grass-rustle sound of it, the feel of his nails scratching over his scalp. It feels so  _ clean _ .

Eddie lowers his hands, and opens his eyes.

It’s him in the mirror.

His breath spikes, panic clenching in his gut. He doubles over, his stomach knotting until he wonders if he’s about to be sick. God, he killed Elizabeth. Fuck he  _ killed _ her. Father is going to kill him. There is no way he can hide any more. He is going to be  _ crucified _ at school-

It’s him in the mirror.

Father is never going to believe his excuses. They already think he’s a dyke at school-

It’s him in the mirror.

They’re going to  _ kill  _ him-

_ It’s him in the mirror _ .

Eddie lifts his head. Eddie in the mirror meets his eyes. He tries for a smile and it’s trembling and weak, but it’s  _ there _ . It’s better than any smile he’d ever seen from Elizabeth, that’s for damn sure.

 

* * *

 

He goes downstairs and starts dinner. Father will be at the church for at least another hour, and he’ll already be mad enough. Potatoes from the garden, the rest of the chicken Mrs Jones gave them because it’s a meat day, yesterday’s cabbage warmed up because father hates waste-

It doesn’t matter what he does. It won’t matter what he says. Father is going to be fucking furious and it’s going to  _ hurt. _ He gets the warm plate to the table, lays out the cutlery, and starts to get the glass down-

The door opens, he fumbles the glass, and it shatters to the ground. Horror kicks up and locks in the back of his throat and he can’t  _ breathe _ . He wants to cry. He wants to scream. He can only kneel down and try and sweep the shards out of sight before-

“What is going on here?”

Father’s voice is soft, almost gentle. It would be better if he was shouting. God, please let him shout. Eddie looks up, pieces of glass slipping from his fingers. Father’s eyes are as cold and sharp as the broken glass, his face still and calm, with only the stiffness in his shoulders and the fists half hidden in the sleeves of his coat warning Eddie of just how much trouble he is in.

“I’ll clean it up.” He tries, his voice is half a croak.

“Stand up.”

Eddie gets up. Okay. This is the worst bit. This is what he was so terrified of. It’s happening now.

“Get over here.”

Eddie walks over stiffly, he has pick a place to stand in the broken glass . Eyes down, chewed lower lip. If he was still Elizabeth, his hair would be falling over his face, every inch the obedient, chastened daughter.

But he isn’t Elizabeth, and he can’t hide behind her any more.

Father’s hand touches the remains of his hair. Eddie flinches, his hands clench, it’s such a light touch, barely there. “Chris put gum in my hair.” He tries to keep his voice as soft and breathy as he can. “I couldn’t get it out-“

“And so you-  _ mutilated _ yourself.” Still so soft, that voice, that hand. Eddie clenches his eyes, lets the tears slip free.

“It’ll grow back-“ he croaks, flinches when his father’s hand clenches in his hair- but there’s so little of it left, it just slips through his fist. There’s a brief flicker of triumph, then his father’s hand snaps around his jaw, and yanks his head up.

“ _ Don’t you dare lie to me.” _ A damp point of spittle lands on his cheek. “This is about a boy, isn’t it? You’re trying to get close to a boy-“

“No- father-“

“ _ No?” _ He mocks, “It’s not a boy, Elizabeth? You cut your hair off because they were just  _ chasing you _ down? You were so desperate to keep them away?”

“I told you,- the gum-“

“Or is it a girl?” The grip is so tight Eddie’s teeth are cutting into the inside of his cheek. A line of saliva drops free to his father’s hand. “Name of god, you’re  _ disgusting- _ it is a girl, isn’t it! You’re a filthy dyke, a goddamn  _ queer- _ “

Oh fuck. Oh fuck he’s going to die. His father is going to fucking kill him and he is going to fucking  _ die _ . “No-“ his voice is barely his, muddled and lost in his father’s hand.

“You’ve invited the devil in, girl! The devil’s own whore! You brought him in and he is within you now!” H e snaps and grips Eddie's shoulder.

Eddie wants to scream from the pain of Father's thumb digging in the hollow of his collarbone, it hurts so much. "No!" He chokes “You spread your legs! Admit it! You spread your legs to the devil!”

There’s nothing else to say. “Yes.” Eddie sobs, and he can’t even convince himself he’s pretending any more. “Yes. I didn’t want to. He forced me-“

“Liar! What did he promise you? What did you  _ sell _ yourself to the Beast for?” He hand slips, closes around Eddie’s throat.

Eddie tries to think, fast. God, if you’re listening, what do I say? What does he want to hear so he doesn’t kill me? “I wanted to be good!” He chokes. “I know I’m bad! I know I’m sinful and wrong and I can’t be good. God couldn’t help me. I- I thought the devil could-“

“Kneel girl!” And oh, oh thank fucking god he lets go of his throat. Both hands on his shoulder, pushing Eddie down to the shattered glass. Okay, broken glass beats broken neck. Eddie sobs and clenches his eyes shut. The glass crunches under his knees and he gasps in pain.

“Be silent!” Eddie clenches his teeth. “The pain will purify you! The pain is the hand of god on you! Cast out the devil, girl! Renounce him!”

“I renounce him!” Eddie begs.  _ Please god, let it end.  _

“You renounce the devil!” His hand is so tight Eddie can barely breathe.

“I renounce the devil!” He chokes.

“You cast him from you!”

“I cast him from me!”

“Renounce your sinful flesh!” A spray of spittle across his cheek, he’s screaming.

“I renounce my sinful flesh!” Eddie’s voice is too high, too shrill, he doesn’t care.

“Embrace the light of God!”

“I embrace his light.” Eddie is shaking and sobbing and please please make it stop  _ please _ .

“Rise!” His father pulls at his shoulders. Forcing him to his feet. His skirt is soaked through with blood at the knee. “Oh Jesus, Mother Mary, save this sinful child. Save her from the hands of Satan. Save her from the world and its temptations.”

“Save me!” Eddie wails. Are they back on script? Please let them be back on script. It’s almost over please it’s almost over.

“In the wilderness, Christ confronted the devil.” His father drags him out of the kitchen, “The devil tempted Christ in the wilderness. Christ resisted the devil, Christ proved His divinity before the devil.” They are outside now, the night air sharp in Eddie’s lungs. “You are in the wilderness, Elizabeth. Do you reject the devil?”

“Yes!” Oh thank god, thank god they’re on script. It’s almost over thank god thank god thank god.

“Do you cast him out?”

“Yes!” The lights are on in the surrounded houses, Eddie can see people coming out to watch the show.

“Do you reject the temptations of the world?”

“Yes.”

“This is your wilderness, Elizabeth,” He’s whispering now, the quiet deafening. “You will stay in the wilderness, and confront the devil.”

“Yes.” He feels like a parrot,  _ yes yes yesyesyesyes please stop _ .

His father throws open the shed door and pushes Eddie inside. “Your wilderness. You will confront the devil in the darkness.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“Thank Jesus.”

“Thank you Jesus.” Eddie falls to his knees and  _ oh,  _ that hurt. “Thank you! Thank you!”

“Praise him!”

“Praise Jesus!” The whole neighborhood can hear, he barely cares. It’s nothing they haven’t seen before.

“Your hail Marys, Elizabeth. Your rosary. Your hail Marys.”

Eddie digs it out, parsing them through his fingers in perfect reflex. “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee-“

The door slams shut, the lock clicks. Eddie chokes, sobs, but struggles through a dozen hail Marys before he dares to stop. The shed is pitch dark, silent but for his ragged breathing. His knees hurt abominably. Eddie slides back to sit on his backside, and tentatively probes his knees. They are thick with blood, and he can feel shards of glass still embedded in the skin.

“Okay.” He breathes. His voice his heavy, choked. “Okay.” It’s something to do. He’s not going anywhere else tonight. He can keep himself busy getting rid of the glass.

But first, it’s not water, but it’s close enough. Jesus might even appreciate the irony. Eddie dips his fingers in the blood, and flicks it against his forehead once, twice, three times. “I baptize you,” he trembles, “Eddie Brock. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

 


	2. Penance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie finds a falling star.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for homophobic and transphobic slurs.

 

At some point, he might have fallen asleep; curled up in a ball against the wall, rosary still clutched in his hand in case his father comes back. He might have been asleep, dozing, or just wandering away in his own head away from the pain and exhaustion, when the light wakes him.

Eddie blinks, squints through the blaze of light. At first, he thinks it’s headlights from a car, but they’re too high up. He shields his eyes and stands, wincing as his wounded knees unbend. It’s coming from the sky.

A streak of light crossing the sky. A shooting star- or a falling satellite. Eddie’s fingers curl on the sill, peering over to see. It’s almost too bright to look at, searing like the sun. Burning up on entry. Then a brighter flare, the light disappears out of sight of the window, but Eddie feels the ground shake, it must have landed nearby.

Eddie tries to catch sight of it, but the light is gone, swallowed up by the muddy fields beyond their house. He holds his breath, but everything is silent. No one seems to have noticed the falling star.

Maybe- just maybe- if his father lets him out early enough, if he can get away before school, he could find it. If it’s a meteorite, or a bit of a spaceship, he might be able to put it up on ebay, and get some money out of it.

Eddie glances down to the little loose flagstone in the corner, where he kept his stash. Sixty three dollars twenty cents. Scrounged from money his father didn’t miss, spare change he pocketed after shopping, even a few dollars stolen from other’s backpacks. They didn’t need it, but he did.

A motorbike. A helmet and a leather jacket. Biking boots. Food for a few days and a handful of dollars. The open road opening in front of him; everywhere to go, and no one to know who he is.

Anywhere but here.

Eddie sighs and sits down. He’ll check the field tomorrow, and see what he can add to his little trove. But right now, he’s so fucking tired-

The ringing of keys snaps him back to himself. The faint light of dawn is flickering though the shed windows, and Eddie quickly throws himself on his knees, digging out his rosary and breathing through his Hail Marys.

His father pulls the door open suddenly, the light makes Eddie wince, but he keeps his head down, still whispering through his prayers. His father frowns down at him, probably hoping to have caught him in some unholy activity- like sleeping. Eddie doesn’t meet his eyes, doesn’t move.

Finally, his father _harrumphs_. “You can get up now, Elizabeth.”

Eddie gets up, swaying a little. His father has already turned away, stamping back to the house. “Get changed for school.” He snapped, as thought it was Eddie’s choice to stay all night in the shed.

The shower is cold, and his knees _burn_ , but he waits in there until his father leaves for church, then bandages his knees and puts on a sweater, and a pair of ancient, worn trousers he’d found outside a thrift shop. He goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth and- fuck. He looks awful. He’s exhausted and his eyes are dull and heavy. But it’s _his_ face. Not Elizabeth’s, not any more.

Eddie gives himself a tired sort of smile, and goes downstairs to raid a few spare potatoes and chicken from last night. Then he slips out of the house, and into the fields.

It’s rough, half wild land, all scrubby bushes and sudden dips into half vanished ponds. He’s the only one out, probably he’s the only one who knows. The only other property bordering the field belongs to people he only knows because the girl is in his class at school, and because her parents call his father month after month, demanding exorcisms for her.

Eddie ducks under a low branch through a cluster of wild apple trees. He looks hopefully for some late fruit left against the hollow in his stomach- but they’ve been stripped bare for weeks. Right at the top though- _there_. Some branches are broken-a line of splinters and scorched wood where something very hot smashed its way through.

Eddie smiles, and follows the line, out of the trees and into a hollow. A low bush has a chunk taken out of it, like a huge bitemark, and just beyond the hedge, something is smoking. Eddie can smell the heavy, musty soot of burning grass.

No one is there, but Eddie hurries across the grass anyway. The ground is rutted with rabbit holes, and Eddie stumbles and almost falls as a lean brown shape darts out from under his feet. The meteor is smoking in a pit burnt deep into the turf and underlying soil, heavy and rich and wet, and still so hot the morning dew is evaporating almost as quickly as it can form.

Eddie crouches down, wincing as his knees stretch and- fuck, it _is_ a bit of a spaceship. A lump of smoking metal, pitted with heat, and under it, Eddie can see some kind of half-melted glass. It’s too hot to touch, and Eddie roots around for a stick. He prods at it carefully, turning it over to expose more of the glass.

The metal spits angrily as it hits the damp ground. It’s _big_ , whatever it is, a sort of glass cylinder as long as his arm, but weirdly light. The glass puckers where the stick touches it, soft and oozing as butter. When he pulls it back, the stick is smoking and there’s a long string of glass clinging to the end.

There’s something inside the glass. Something _moving_.

Eddie’s breath catches- _What?_ Something dark inside, blacker than the soil around it. Moving heavy and gravid as frogs in oil.

Eddie licks his lips. He should be going to school now. He should leave it. He should come back later, when its cooler, he should-

If he goes away now, he’ll never see it again. Someone else will come. They’ll call the police, the army- Eddie braces the stick under the cylinder, tries to shift it free. It rocks, and the liquid inside thrashes wildly, like there’s a storm going on in there. Eddie grits his teeth and pushes harder, forcing the glass and the half-melted metal a few more inches out.

Eddie gets a glimpse of the whatever is inside- glossy and thick, slick as motor oil and black as ink- then something comes free with a _crack_ and the stick punches straight through the molten glass.

Eddie only half time to think _oh fuck please no_ as the glass shatters and the burning end of the stick stabs into the liquid inside.

It explodes like the end of the world. A tearing scream and a swallowing blur of darkness. The world blots out for a moment and Eddie is _falling_. He’s falling through endless space and everything is _burning_ , he wants to scream but he doesn’t have a mouth and his skin is peeling away from the heat of it getting worse and worse and oh god he’s going to die he’s going to die Jesus Mary mother of God-

Eddie jerks up, the air chokingly cold in his throat. His eyes are blurry with tears and his whole body aches as though someone went over it with sandpaper. He sits up stiffly, his clothes stick to him when he moves and- fuck, no way that’s just mud. His hands are muddy to the elbows and he left one shoe fuck knows where, his sock more brown than white.

He tries to catch his breath, gropes for his shoe and his whole body feels- swollen, raw and bloated. Like all his skin’s been scraped off and there’s nothing keeping the muscles and veins inside him. His shoe is gone, it must have been blown away when the cylinder-

The cylinder!

Eddie scrabbles at the ground, clawing at the ground in great ruts and crawling his way over on his hands and knees. In the hollow, the cylinder is nothing but a shattered ruin, glass shards spitting in the grass, whatever it was inside long gone.

Probably some kind of rocket fuel. Eddie gropes over his arms, his legs. Somehow he’s not hurt, but it all feels- wrong. And maybe that’s not new, but it’s just- a different kind of wrong. The swollen feeling’s gone, but now he feels like he’s made of sticks and rusty hinges, stiff and brittle and worn.

Or maybe that’s just the feeling of not having slept all night; and having to go to school late and covered in mud and rabbitshit. Of having seen something he thought might turn out to be good, just being another kick to the face.

Eddie groans and sits back on his heels, lifts his hand to rub his face- then thinks better of it. At least his knees don’t hurt-

Eddie pauses, looks down. He’s sitting with his weight on them, pressed into the cold ground. He gets up stiffly, pulls his soaked trousers up to his thighs.

His knees are just pink, unmarked skin, pale hair dusted unevenly over them. There isn’t so much as a scab.

 

* * *

 

 

Eddie arrives at school almost an hour late. His clothes are stained despite his best attempts at cleaning them, and he can’t help the hunch of his shoulders as he slinks into his first class and the whole room falls silent at the sight of him.

“Elizabeth-“ The teacher starts, and stops. Eddie gives her a flat look of exhausted loathing. She has no idea where to start: his clothes, his haircut, the smeared mud on everything, his lost shoe. Finally, she decides the disaster of Eddie Brock is too much to deal with for a morning, and just waves him wordlessly to his seat.

It’s a mark of just how bad he looks that everyone is too stunned to laugh at once. It’s only when he’s sitting down that the whispers start, and the giggles. Eddie doesn’t look round, doesn’t move. It’s as though he’s enclosed in glass, everything filtering through to him distantly, distorted. Like looking at the world through a fishbowl-

Something hits the back of his neck and drops into his shirt. Eddie hisses and digs the scrap of paper out. _DYKE_. They’ve sprinkled it in glitter, for some reason. Eddie grits his teeth and throws it to the floor.

“Elizabeth Brock!” The teacher look relieved for having something reasonable to charge him with. “Put that in the bin this instant!”

It’s a raw, dull anger, so old and familiar even the numb exhaustion can’t block it out. Eddie has to force his fists to unclench to pick the paper up. _DYKE_ sparkling mockingly between his fingers. _DYKE DYKE DYKEDYKEDYKE_ -

The teacher doesn’t look at him, doesn’t look at the paper between his fingers. She doesn’t want to know. Which is good, because Eddie doesn’t want her to, doesn’t want the mess, and the pain it would cause. But she doesn’t want it either. Not for his sake, but because her world would be so much neater without Eddie Brock in it. A nice, clean classroom full of nice, clean students.

She’s pretending so hard she doesn’t seem to hear the low laughter as Eddie walks up to the bin. Eddie tries to throw the paper in, but it flutters free of his hand in long streamers, torn to shreds in his hands.

Eddie looks at him, his hand sparkling with shed glitter. Did he- had he just been so angry he couldn’t remember tearing it up? Eddie ignores the laughter as he stomps back to his seat, the teachers eyes on him-  “Like a lady, Elizabeth,” until he wishes he could grab the whole classroom and everyone in it, crush it like the paper, and tear it to pieces.

“Did you tear up my paper, Tranny Lizzie?” Christie hisses as Eddie passes her. “After we made it just for you.”

“Fuck off.” Eddie snarls back. The anger tastes hot, like blood and burning iron. His teeth suddenly _itch_ with the urge to bite.

“Miss, can she sit somewhere else?” Christie sits back, “Lizzie’s on her Tourettes again.”

“Elizabeth,” the teacher groans, as though Eddie is just _too much_. “Be quiet, and take the corner desk.”

Eddie picks up his books and pens, ignores the renewed giggles and walks over to the forsaken desk. Away from the others, at least. He sits down, picks up his pen and jumps as it shatters in his hand, ink smearing black over his fingers, glossy and dark as the space between the stars.


	3. Anathema

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie's day continues to get worse.

The first teacher ignored Eddie, unfortunately, the gym master is a fucking _dick_.

“Where are your shoes, Elizabeth?”

Eddie shrugs; same as last week and the week before. He doesn’t have gym shoes. He’s never had gym shoes. It’s the same fucking game very week.

“We’re waiting, Elizabeth.” Scattered giggles from those watching.

“Don’t have shoes.” He grunts.

More giggles. The gym teacher seems to preen. Eddie wonders what _he’s_ getting out of this. Does he get off on humiliating Eddie? Does he like it when everyone laughs? He stares at the grass at his feet, at his one bare foot.

“No shoes? Your father can’t afford to buy you shoes now?”

Eddie says nothing, everyone is laughing now.

“Maybe _it_ should pray harder for shoes.” A mutter. Laughing harder, the teacher smirks.

“Now, God works in mysterious ways. Get the spare shoes, Elizabeth.”

Good, finally. He can feel all the eyes on him as he turns to go to the gym cupboard, like a weight on his back, pushing, trying to shove him down. Eddie straightens his back, like unbending a bar of iron, and digs out the ancient, rotting spare sneakers.

“You can break them in by lapping the field.” The gym teacher seems to be glowing under the laughter, playing to his audience. “It might give you extra time to pray.”

_Bite his head off_

Eddie’s teeth itch, his mouth is watering. Suddenly, all he can see is the _fucker’s_ throat. The pulsing beat of the arteries at his neck, the panting laughter. He imagines the windpipe crushing under his teeth, the hot rush of blood bursting free-

_Yes_

The gym teacher blinks, suddenly off balance at Eddie’s burning, furious stare. “What are you waiting for, girl? Move.”

“Not a girl.” Eddie grits out. His heart is beating against his eardrums, he’s suddenly too hot and freezing cold all at the same time.

“Tranny Lizzie.” Someone whispers. The giggles are a bit more muted this time, though.

“You’re a disobedient little-“ The teacher stops himself, “Get moving, two laps.”

“Even he knows you’re a bitch.” Just Christie, this time. The others look awkward, shifting under Eddie’s relentless glare.

_Bite their heads off_

He feels a trickle of saliva running down his jaw.

_Pile of bodies, pile of heads_

For a moment, Eddie wants nothing but. To charge in, all teeth and nails and tearing them to pieces, limb from fucking limb-

“Get moving, Brock!” The teacher roars, jerking Eddie back to himself. “Three laps! And move before I make you run all period. Go!”

Eddie turns, and starts running. Behind him, there’s a moment’s silence before the laughter starts again, high and uproarious.

Fuck, what was he thinking? Was he really going to just jump in and- what, flail around looking ridiculous while he gave all of them the excuse to beat the crap out of him? Jump and try and bite off the teacher’s head and- fuck, what would they even do to him if he tried that-

_Kill them. No one can stop us_.

“Shut up.” Eddie snarls to himself. His heart is beating too hard, panting and struggling for breath. He’s flagging as he passes the teacher and the rest of the class. “Knees up, Elizabeth! Pretend you’re on a chorus line!”

Eddie grits his teeth, his muscles burn as he tries to get extra speed.

_Need to go fast?_

God, is he being fucking stupid today, or did the explosion bash out his brains? “Yeah, we need to go fast,” his breath cuts his throat, tastes of metal.

_Okay_

Strength bursts through his legs, hot blood pumping through him like petrol. His muscles feel liquid with power, and suddenly he’s running, running, _running_. Running like he dreamed, flying down the road with the wind in his hair and far, far from here. Finally far from everyone, alone-

_Never alone_

It’s a warm rush inside him, like a bright orange bursting and spilling sweet juice everywhere. Eddie’s suddenly smiling. Suddenly feels _good_ , better than he can remember for too long.

He passes the class again, and again. They all ignore him, so he keeps running. He’s not tired, and if he can keep this good feeling going, just a bit longer, it’ll be worth all the aching muscles and stiff bones later. His feet beat the ground rhythmically; he’s not even sweating any more, just enjoying a warm glow against the chill of the day.

He glances over to the class. They’ve finished the star jumps, and are splitting them off into teams. The last time, Eddie had ended up being pushed from one team to the other, shrieks of _you take it! No you take it_ -

Today, it’s someone else. Eddie slows his pace for a moment as he passes. Snatches of laughter, a bark- “You take her!” “No you! We don’t want the devil on our team!”

He knows her. Exorcism girl. She’s hugging herself and crying, long strands of blond hair sticking to her wet face. “I’m not-“ she tries to push them away, but there are too many hands, pushing, grabbing, shoving. “Leave me alone-“

For a moment, she meets Eddie’s eyes. There’s something pleading there but- what does she want him to do? Eddie jerks his head; she can run with him if she wants. For a moment, her eyes harden, and she turns and shoves the next person to grab her- Christie. “Leave me alone!”

“Waying!” A bark from the teacher. “Get on the field with Brock! You parents will hear about this!”

For a moment she wilts, then draws herself up and jogs off after Eddie.

Eddie gives her a half smile, but she doesn’t meet his eyes, running in silence. Eddie shrugs, and goes back to his laps.

She’s in better shape than he is, Eddie’s seen her cycling to school every day, but she’s out of breath after the second lap. By the time the class is over, she’s soaked with sweat and gasping, and Eddie is still just comfortably warm. The teacher gives him a look of confused annoyance, and shoos them off the field.

“I’ve got a spare pair of shoes.” Waying says suddenly. “You can borrow them if you want.”

She’s holding out a pair of the most revolting polished patent leather shoes, festooned with bows and flowers. Eddie had never seen them for ages above five. “No thanks.” Eddie says, risking a smile. “I’m okay and- they’re a bit- girly, aren’t they?”

Waying smiles. “Yeah, I hate them too. But Mom won’t give me anything else.” She looks at Eddie’s feet, he’s given up on shoes entirely and his socks are full of holes. “Think she’ll notice if I lose them too?”

“Probably,” Eddie shrugs. “My father doesn’t give a fuck most of the time.”

She smiles. “Yeah, I wish mine didn’t. Everything I do is down to demons.”

“Maybe you can convince her it’s the shoes. Demon possessed shoes. We had to burn them.”

She laughs, and there’s something tired there Eddie knows _so fucking well_. She hesitates, “I’m Anne.”

“Hey.” Eddie draws in his breath but- fuck it. “I’m Eddie.”

She blinks; frowns. “That’s a boy’s name.”

It’s like a knife, puncturing the warm feeling inside him and letting it all rush out, into the cold. “Yeah.” He spits. “It is.” He leaves. She doesn’t follow. It’s lunchtime, but he’s too sick to be hungry.

 

* * *

 

At least until he gets to the cafeteria, then-

_HUNGRY_

God, he’s so fucking hungry he can barely _think_. Which, yeah, of course, he hasn’t eaten since this morning, and that wasn’t much. But holy shit Eddie’s gone days without food when his father kicks off one of his holy fast weeks. He’s _never been_ this hungry.

The slow shuffle in line is too much to bear. He can _smell_ the food, and even the soggy over-cooked chips and anonymous lumps of chicken make his mouth water uncontrollably.

_HUNGRY, EDDIE_

His stomach is a draining knot inside him, a ravenous mouth champing and chewing on his guts in hunger. Someone up ahead is having an argument with one of the lunch ladies and Eddie groans, “Come on.”

“Shut up,” the girl ahead scowls at him. “We’re all hungry.”

“Not like this.” Eddie growls. Right now, the _girl_ looks edible. All that pink, plush flesh, the promise of hot blood just below the surface, the crunch of bone and the sweet suck of marrow within-

“Eww-“ she recoils as Eddie drools. “What are you, some kind of dog?“ She backs away, announcing loudly; “I don’t think I’m hungry anymore.”

Eddie doesn’t care, because she’s _out of the line_ , and he’s one more step closer to the _food;_ the rich, delicious food just there, waiting for him-

“I _said_ this chicken’s bad.” One of Christie’s friends, what’s her name. Standing hands on hips, pointing at the chicken and for fuck’s sake, what does she think the lunch ladies can do about it? It’s not like they buy in the chicken. “This bit’s _green_. What the hell’s up with that?”

“It’s probably pesto.” The lunch lady looks exhausted from under her hairnet. “Do you want some or not?”

“I think you shouldn’t be selling green chicken in the school-“

_Eat her head_

Eddie is entirely in agreement.

_Yes_

Eddie’s teeth itch, like he hasn’t brushed them for a week. Itch and _push_ until they’re pressed up against his lips, almost too big for his mouth-

“Whoa!” Eddie slams a hand over his mouth before anyone can see. His teeth are _huge_ , easily three times as big as before.

_Hungry, Eddie_.

“See-“ She’s pointing at him, Michelle, that’s her name. “Even Lizzie’s going to be sick; and her dad doesn’t even feed her half the time.”

_Eat her._ Eddie’s hand is wet with drool, his legs bunch, ready to spring.

“Wait-“ Eddie chokes- what the fuck is going on? “No-“

Too late, he lunges forward and almost smashes into Michelle. She jerks back at the last moment and he slams into the dinner counter. “Food-“ he chokes, trying to point himself at the chicken. “Look, food there.”

He doesn’t wait for a plate and isn’t sure where his tray is anyway, just rams a hand into the lukewarm platter of chicken and shovels it into his mouth. It’s slippery and gross but fuck it’s _food_ and Eddie can’t remember ever being this hungry- how can you be so hungry and not die?

Somewhere a long way off, he can hear Michelle screaming, the lunch ladies shouting, and everyone else crowding closer, trying to see. What the fuck does it matter? He’s so _hungry_ , and the food is _right there_ and-

_This food is dead_

And he’s being sick. All over the platter of chicken, his own shirt and the lunch lady.


	4. Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie and Venom finally talk.

“Your father is not answering his phone.” The principle puts the receiver down with the _snap_. “Does he have a mobile number?”

Eddie shakes his head, too humiliated to speak. The security guards had dragged him out of the lunch room. This is quite possibly the worst day of his life.

“You will tell him to call us first thing when he gets home.” The principle sits down and sighs. “Can I trust you to get home safely?”

Eddie nods in relief. The phone isn’t even at home; his father won’t have the things in the house. With luck, this will blow over and he won’t even hear about it-

Unless someone tells him, and _everyone_ saw Eddie go psycho in the lunch room. Anne saw him, and her parents talk to his father almost every day-

Fuck. And he told her his name. What if she told her parents and they told-

The principle must have seen his face, because she sighs again. “You’re not in trouble, Elizabeth. You are clearly sick, and I’ll suggest he takes you to see a doctor. Honestly, I don’t think going to see a psychiatrist would be going too far, after your behavior today.”

Eddie nods again, and when it becomes clear there isn’t more coming he gets up stiffly and walks out. His stomach is still crawling with hunger, and oh fuck what’s wrong with him? What’s going on with him?

_Us_. _We are going on, Eddie_.

Eddie stops in the middle of the corridor. It’s after lunch now, and the hallway is empty. “Who’s there?” His voice wavers uncertainly.

_We are. We are here, Eddie._

That voice. He’d heard that voice, on the pitch, in the lunchroom. He’d thought it was just inside his head-

_We are inside your head_ -

And that is really not reassuring. He thinks suddenly of Anne, her parents calling his father in over and over to exorcise the demons they were sure were inside her.

_Not a demon_.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck _oh fuck-_ he was right. His father was _right_. He’d invited a demon into himself. He’d been possessed-

_Your heartrate is too high_

What had he done? Was it the hair, last night? Or not praying for long enough in the shed or-

_Your blood pressure is rising. You must calm down._

The field! It had to be the field! That strange black thing inside the cylinder that had knocked him out-

_Where are you going?_

“You’re going back.” Eddie snarled under his breath. “We’re going and you’re going to get out of me and going straight back to hell-“ he’s about to add _fucker_ , but swearing is probably a bad idea right now, he doesn’t need any more sins for the devil to feed on-

_Not the devil._

“Liar.”

He runs all the way back to the field. The remains of the cylinder are still there; Eddie stumbles over and drops to his knees, digging out his rosary. A few rabbits bolt and dive for cover.

“Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee.”

_Eddie. Eddie, calm down._

Eddie tries to ignore it. “Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. “

A pause.

_Eddie_.

His hands shake, slipping over the rosary. “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. “

_Eddie stop._

Eddie’s breath comes shuddering. His voice trembles, “Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. “

His voice wavers and fades on the last amen. The demon is waiting politely until he’s finished. It’s still there, he can _feel it_ , coiled up warm and comfortable inside him.

His fingers rush through the rosary, but his breath comes in pants, too fast, too terrified to speak.

For a moment, there’s nothing, he can feel the dampness of the grass soaking through his clothes. A rabbit peeks out tentatively from a nearby hole. Eddie closes his eyes, tries to catch his breath. He can’t hear anything over the pounding in his ears.

_Hungry, Eddie_.

There’s a rush through him, like a river bursting its banks. The demon snaps out like a snake and Eddie opens his eyes-

Just in time to see his own hand snatch the rabbit by the scruff of the neck and stuff it into his mouth.

It’s about half stringy hair, half blood. The tiny bones _crunch_ under his teeth like popcorn. It screams like a child, then chokes off as Eddie crushes its windpipe.

_Stop!_ Eddie tries to shout, but his mouth’s too full of very dead rabbit.

_Hungry._ The demon says irritably, and bites down of the creature’s tiny head.

The brain bursts in thick, smooth rivulets down his throat, rich and metallic. He gags, but the demon makes him swallow it, bones and all.

After that, there doesn’t seem to be any point in fighting, and he’s so hungry he barely cares. The demon chews through the brainstem, backbone, and through the ribcage to gulp down the tiny organs. Finally, it sits Eddie back down, leaving the lower half of the rabbit lying bloody and still twitching in the grass.

_Good._ It growls, almost purring. _More_.

Oh- fuck it all. Eddie waits until the next rabbit is stupid enough to poke its head out, and half heartedly lunges for it.

Liquid black swallows his arm from the shoulder. Long black claws erupt from his fingers and snag the rabbit just as it tries to dive back into the burrow. Eddie’s teeth burst through again, needle sharp and so long his lips cannot fit over them. They shear through the rabbit’s chest and rip out its insides.

_More_.

“How-“ Eddie chokes on blood and his own teeth. “How many do you need?”

_More of these. Or one like you._

Eddie chokes again, and this time it has nothing to do with the gore and bits of hair in his teeth. “We are _not_ eating anyone.”

_You wanted to before. Any one of those. Young, tender, tasty_.

For a moment, Eddie wonders about it. The feel of Christie’s head, crunching between his teeth. Michelle’s tongue torn from her mouth, a thick slab of muscle-

Eddie has heard the devil tries to tempt people with things they want, money, power, influence, and slowly builds up to kill people after that. He wonders what’s wrong with him that this one didn’t even try, and just went straight to convincing him to bite off heads.

_Not a demon_.

“Shut up.” Eddie puts down the ruined wreck of the rabbit. There’s nothing left but the backbone and the ears, and a sad trail of a tail. He tries to pick out the bits of entrails and gristle stuck in his teeth.

His nail lengthens, sharpens, a sleek black claw more than two inches long. Eddie looks at it for a long moment, despairingly, then gives in and picks rabbit shrapnel out of his mouth.

Then the next rabbit hops out, and the demon decides it’s time for the next course. Eddie gives up, and watches it eat with his body. It takes two more rabbits, and finally the demon lets him collapse, loose limbed and exhausted in the grass.

Eddie’s mouth tastes sticky, and it almost completely coated in hair. He spits half-heartedly, wishes for a toothbrush.

_Good. Thank you Eddie._

“How d’you know that name?” Eddie sits up; his stomach feels pleasantly full, despite the fact that this amount of meat should have exploded him three times over.

_Your name’s written all over your brain. Through and through, it’s all Eddie Brock_.

It feels- weirdly good to hear that. Maybe he can deal with a demon if it calls him by his real name. “Do you have a name?”

Something wells at his shoulder, a tendril of black oilslick. Opalescent eyes blinks open, and- oh, _there_ are those teeth. It grins; the eyes shimmer, strangely beautiful. Eddie reaches out without thinking, trailing fingers over the jut of its jaw, it feels silky and _warm,_ and it leans into his touch. “I am Venom. And you are mine.”

Well, that sounds like a demon’s name, right up there with Legion. “Okay.” Eddie sits back, “What do you want?”

It pauses, the teeth vanish with that broad grin, and for a moment, the demon is silent. “I want what you want.” It says finally. “You are my host, and we are one.”

“And if I want you to go away?”

Those delicate, rainbow white eyes blink, “I will die,” it said simply.

“Oh.” Eddie pauses, then runs his fingers over that smooth, bullet head. “Can’t you go back to- hell, I guess?”

Another blink, “No.” The tendril retreats back into his body. _And I do not come from hell._

“Where do you come from, then?”

And Eddie’s mind is filled with a massive, blurred memory; the sight and sound and touch and taste of a mass of flesh, him and not-him, roiling endlessly across a barren rock beneath the stars, endlessly hungry and endlessly devouring and endlessly devoured.

Eddie jerks back, gulping in the raw evening air. That felt more like hell than anything his father had ever threatened him with.

_Not hell._ The demon reminds him. Then- _But… like your hell, I think. Not good._

“No.” Eddie agrees and- maybe that was it. Maybe all the demons his father went on about just wanted to get out of hell and stay on Earth. Maybe it wasn’t all about temptation and sin and all that, but just escaping somewhere horrible. “I don’t want to eat anyone.” It might be best to lay down the ground rules first.

_Need meat, Eddie._

“Okay, I can get you meat.” Maybe he can shoplift some frozen foods-

_Not dead meat_.

-or he could go on eating rabbits, maybe some chickens and make it looks like some foxes ate them.

_Or we could eat people_.

“No people!” Eddie barks, and Venom subsides into grumbling.

_People who hurt us._

Again, it takes a difficult moment before Eddie snaps, “No people.”

_Fine fine_ , reluctant. _We are tired_.

“Yeah.” Eddie tries to wipe the worst of the blood from his mouth, maybe it’s the reminder, but he’s suddenly feeling exhausted. “Eat and sleep, can you do anything else?”

_What do you want us to do?_

“I don’t know.” Eddie yawns, getting up. “I’ll get back to you.”

The demon purrs in the back of his head as they walk back to his house. His father is out, probably Anne’s parents want another exorcism, Eddie thinks gloomily. God, he hopes she knows to keep her mouth shut-

_We’ll eat them_.

“Is that your answer to everything?” Eddie sighs, and gets the equivalent of a shrug in response. Eddie strips off his ruined clothes, and piles them up to wash later. He’d need to do the weekly wash soon.

_Sleep, Eddie_.

“Wash first,” Eddie groans. He _hates_ showers, but it’s unavoidable after today. He throws his shirt over the mirror and strips off his pants wearily.

_What is wrong_?

Eddie doesn’t answer, staring at the showerhead and trying to keep his arms away from his body. He wears the tightest T-shirt he has under his uniform and without it, it’s-

It’s not good, that’s what it is. His body swollen and bloated in all the wrong places, shrunken and empty in others. Eddie closes his eyes, winces as the water hits his body, and all the places that shouldn’t  be there.

_You have alien growths_.

It’s about the nicest way anyone’s talked about it. Better than freak or tranny. “Yeah, they suck.”

_I can eat them_.

Eddie stops, opens his eyes and stares at the far end of the bathroom. “You can- eat my tits?”

_The growths on your chest? Yes._

Okay, eating people has suddenly become a _fuckton_ more palatable. “Uh, yeah. Definitely. As soon as you can.”

_They are still growing._ The demon prods against his brain; _You have a chemical imbalance that is causing them. I can correct it_.

It’s just so- casual. Just ‘oh hi I heard you have estrogen issues, can I fix it for you?’ Eddie blinks, and blinks again, the shower water runs into his eyes, washes away any tears that might be there. “You can do that?” He croaks.

“Of course.” The long tendril head nudges Eddie, a long tongue snakes out and licks the salt off his cheek. “We will need to eat more, to get the right chemicals.”

Eddie can’t speak, a thick lump in his throat. He’d- fuck, he’d never even _imagined_ far ahead enough to think of getting T. Honestly, he’d never imagined he’d live that long.

_We won’t let us die, Eddie._

Not just his face in the mirror. His body. _His_. Not some Elizabeth’s, not a strangers but _his_. No more hideous jolts when he brushed against some part of him that shouldn’t be there. No more dreading his period every month- he didn’t know which was worse, just how _sick_ and _wrong_ it all felt, or father’s screaming-

His body.

_Ours_ , the demon reminds him.

He- oh he can’t, he _can’t_. It’s too big, too- too much. He braces himself against the crumbling tiles. Closes his eyes and tastes salt, his nose too full. It’s so good he can’t stop the tears, so good he almost wants to be sick.

“Shh,” he feels arms wrap around him, crushing his tits flat against his chest, tight around him. Looks down and can barely muster up surprise at the great muscled forearms, black as sin and thick as his thigh. He closes his eyes, and leans back into the hug, feeling the shower-spray slowly turn cold.

“Better?” A low purr against his ear.

“Yeah.” Eddie turns off the shower with shaking hands. “You can really do that?” His voice wavers.

“Yes.”

“Now would be nice.”

“Already done.”

Eddie braces himself on the sink, rubs his damp eyes. Fuck, the devil really missed a trick. He should have been sending demons to every trans person in the world, and offer them hormone therapy in return for their souls. The line would go three times around the block.

_Don’t want your soul, Eddie. Our soul. Together._

“Sure.” The arms have melted into long, slender tendrils criss-crossing over his body, a thicker one pressing down over his tits. Eddie is shivering, hugs himself.

_Ourselves._

“Okay.” Eddie made his way back to his- their- bedroom. If that was the price of getting everything he’d ever wanted, he’d play host to a demon until doomsday.

_Not a demon._

 

* * *

  

His father comes in late. Eddie is off the floor the moment he hears the door slam, lights off and in bed before he can hear the creak of the stairs. There’s heavy breathing outside his door, the dull thump of a body hitting the wall. He’s drunk.

Eddie closes his eyes, presses his face into the pillow. Asleep, asleep asleep. Look asleep. Let him look in and not bother with anything tonight. Venom’s tendrils are still looped around him, and tighten a little as the fear kicks in. It’s meant to be comforting, but it just kicks everything into panic because _oh fuck what if he sees?_ What if he realizes what’s happened and oh god what is he going to do he’ll take Venom away he’ll _kill_ Eddie-

_No one hurts us_

Everything he’d cared about before. Small toys he’d brought home from school as a kid, a kitten he’d found under a cardboard box. Father had taken them away and he’d never seen them again and now he has something he so desperately _wants_ and it’s going to be taken away and he can’t stop it and he’s so _weak_ and _small_ and _such a_ _girl_ -

_Protect us_.

And suddenly, the tang of terror is gone, and all Eddie can taste is teeth. They press out into the fabric of the pillow, so sharp he has to turn his head to keep from shredding the worn fabric. His body bunches, the demon flowing out of him like hot tar, swallowing- _protecting-_

“Kill him.” Venom breathes through him, his voice- _their_ voice- a heavy dull growl, like a crouched tiger waiting to pounce. But even tigers don’t have their teeth, their claws. One quick bite, one swipe of their talons, and it would be all over. No more fear, no screaming and lashing fists and being locked in the shed-

The doorknob creaks, and Eddie snaps back to himself. Terror explodes in his stomach _oh fuck he’s going to see he’ll know he’ll kill us he’ll take Venom away nononono-_ “No-” He croaks. His voice is heavy, thick as oil. “Stop-”

“Hurt us,” the demon growls, “We can stop him.”

“No,” a crack of light from outside, “Please don’t-“ And maybe it can feel the fear, a third presence within them, sick and cold and gaping open like a pit with no bottom, because it shuts up.

_Kill them_. The demon grumbles, but it’s flowing away, back inside Eddie. A warm, solid ball of comfort somewhere under his diaphragm. Eddie closes his eyes, and stays as still as he can as the world of his eyelids glows red pink from the open door.

For a moment, Eddie holds his breath, waiting, then his father gives a grunt, and the door is banged closed, and locked.

Eddie rolls on his back, catches his breath. “We can’t.” He whispers desperately.

The demon’s head forms from his chest, that lean black head, those needle teeth, those huge, milky eyes, like the insides of seashells. “We can.” It promises, purring. “They can’t hurt us, Eddie. We’re bigger and stronger than they are.”

The tendrils tighten again, a hug. Eddie rubs his fingers between those eyes, the skin is glossamer smooth and flows between his fingers like water made solid. “They’ll take you away,” he says finally, it’s barely been a day and already he can barely think about it. “They’ll exorcise you-“ _Father._ His father, who art not in heaven. This broad, strong hands, tight around his throat-

“We _won’t_ let them hurt us, and I am not a demon.” Venom growls, irritated.

“That’s what a demon _would_ say.” Eddie scowls, this is _serious_. “And he’ll hurt us, he’ll tear you back to hell and-” he can’t go on. Being taken to hell with Venom might be the better option.

The demon grumbles to himself, and sinks down in Eddie’s chest like a crocodile in deep water. “They’re not going to get rid of us.” It growls, Eddie can feel the vibrations of the words in his ribs. “We are Venom. We can beat all of them.”

It’s odd, but it wonders if the demon’s trying to convince himself, maybe it’s feeling scared, all alone and far from home with only _Eddie_ to rely on-

_Not scared_. A growl at the base of his brain. Eddie smiles, and strokes the tendrils over his chest, trying to give back a bit of comfort. _Bite off their heads. Eat them_.

“Yeah no.” Eddie closes his eyes. And even despite the leaky window and the worn blankets, Eddie’s never been warmer, Venom running through him like tidal rivers, seeping heat through every vein. God, that’s good. “Are you going to sleep?”

_Yes. We can sleep. Good night Eddie._

It’s funny, Eddie never realized how much he wanted to hear that until someone said it. He never imagined it would be a demon. He smiles, snuggles into the blankets. “Good night Venom.”


	5. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie gets used to his new life, and tries to make friends.

The rabbits are starting to get shy by the weekend, and they aren’t enough for Venom. They manage to snatch a fish from the supermarket after school, or rather, Venom does. Eddie just walks past and by the time he’s gone by, Venom’s swallowed the massive chunks salmon, bones and scales and all. He gulps down six chocolate bars in the candy section and spits out the wrappers when they’re out. It takes a few tries before he manages to regurgitate the Styrofoam trays the fish were on.

There are no rabbits on Friday, but they do find a mean looking pair of raccoons, and Venom is not fussy. “Good,” He purrs, licking their fingers.

Eddie looks down at themselves and sighs, they’re covered in dried blood and bits of fur. Filthy chunks of something he’d rather not know about are stuck under his fingernails. There’s no way of getting out of it, they are going to have to take another shower today. It doesn’t make any difference if he goes into school clean or not, but his father will want him spotless for Sunday’s service-

Something cold and slick that isn’t raccoon cramps his stomach. The church. It’s not an official one of course, but it’s still holy ground-

Venom snarls through bloodied teeth, “Not a demon.”

“And you can just walk into a church and be fine, right?” Eddie grumbles.

“I can’t.” Venom growls, “ _We_ can. We will go together, and if anyone tries to stop us-“

“We’ll eat them, right.” Eddie sighs. He gets them up, “I need to wash my clothes for Sunday, and have a shower.”

Venom finished picking scraps from his teeth, and nuzzled his cheek to Eddie’s. “Why? You don’t want to go.”

Which is to be expected, of course a demon wouldn’t want him to go to Mass, but coming from Venom, it sound genuinely concerned. Eddie cups the side of his head and strokes the smooth skin. “We have to,” he sighs, it’s not the first time he’s had to explain simple things to Venom, “Or he’ll try and hurt us, you’ll eat him-“

“And we’ll be arrested and they’ll try and kill us,” Venom finishes for him, grumbling. “This poison and gas and electricity. It can’t kill us.”

Eddie pauses, getting up. “It can’t?”

**_Only fire_** _,_ Venom slinks back inside them, **_and some kinds of sound frequencies. No one knows, we won’t tell them_.**

“They’d probably bring back witch burning, just for us.” Eddie starts back to the house. “And do you really want a load of people chasing us all over the western seaboard, trying to kill us? Even if they can’t?”

**_No_.** Venom says finally. **_But this is hardly better_.**

Well, Eddie can’t say anything to that.

His father is home when they come in, but Eddie keeps his head down and tries to sidle upstairs. “Where were you?”

Eddie swallows. “I was just coming home; I fell over in the field.”

“What were you doing there?” Oh, his voice’s getting softer; Eddie’s stomach shrinks inside him.

 “Just coming home.” He closes his eyes. “I never walk home with the others. I know you don’t like it.”

“Don’t you? Or did you want to get one of them alone? In the field, just the two of you?”

Eddie’s breath stutters and- oh God no- feels Venom coil up inside him, the alien anger warring against the fear. “No, I-“

“Look at me!”

Eddie’s head snaps up, eyes wide. His father is inches away, frowning at him like Eddie’s some- bug he’s found, under the carpet. Something blind and foul and wriggling. “Was it a boy, Elizabeth? One of those football players at school? Did you tempt him after you? You did, didn’t you?”

“No!” Eddie begs.

The hands snap taut around his shoulders. “You did. You want the boys, don’t you Elizabeth? That sin gets you panting like a bitch in heat. How many were there? Was one not enough for you?” The thumbs press into Eddie’s shoulders, blunt knives of pain. Venom hisses in his head and pushes, trying to get free-

“Don’t!”

Father stops a moment, staring at him. “Please!” Eddie begs, trying to get the words out before it’s too late, before Father sees Venom and _knows_ and it’s all over. “I hate walking home with the others, they hate me and hurt me and pushed me over that’s why my clothes are a mess and I just wanted to get away from them and I got lost and I’m sorry I’m _sorry_ -“ He chokes, he’s crying, but father’s let him go.

“If you’re lying-“ A creeping rumble like thunder.

“I’m not! Please I just wanted to get home.”

**_Eddie-_ **

Eddie doesn’t say anything and Venom lets his name trail off into silence. Father looks down at him, as though wondering if he’s worth the mess of squashing.

“What dress are you wearing for Sunday?” He says softly.

“The blue one,” Eddie keeps his voice low, stifles his relief. “With the hat.”

“The blue one.” His father repeats, “But no hat until we get to church. I want them to see the ruin you made of your hair.”

“Yes, father.” Eddie doesn’t look up. Please, let that be all.

“The clothes are in the bathroom, I want them ready for church.”

Eddie stifles the sigh of relief. “Yes, father.”

“Go.”

Eddie wonders if this is how soldiers feel, walking into the line of fire and away again, somehow still alive and unhurt.

**_Yes father_.** Venom mimics, snarling in his head. **_No, father, can I eat my legs for you, father_. _Snap his neck, gnaw on his spine. Kill him. Kill him_.**

“He’d kill you.” Eddie closes the bathroom door and leans against it. “He’d find a way, and he’d kill me too for letting you in. I- I can’t stop him, you saw, I’m _useless_ -“

“Not useless.” Venom slides out of him, winding around his body. “Warm, good, perfect.” It’s like being hugged by a boa constrictor, “We hate seeing you scared. Fear’s such a stupid emotion, tastes bitter.”

“Feels worse.” Eddie agrees, going to the tub. The cheap soap crumbles under his hands; he strips off his blouse and starts to scrub, the water splashes up his arms, soaks his t-shirt. His clothes are worse than most weeks, stained with brownish blood from Venom’s meals, and mud from their first meeting.

“Here,” Venom coils over his shoulder and into the cloth, “This is unpleasant,” he announces, “Do you have any other way of doing this?”

“Yeah,” Venom’s broken up the stain enough that it’s coming out. “We have drycleaners and washing machines and everything.”

“And you don’t use them-“

“Because father.”

“You humans put far too much value in biological ties.”

“Not gonna argue.” Between the two of them, the work is going much faster.

“Disgusting,” Venom puts in.

“Yeah well, half the stains are your fault.”

And somehow, that’s making it go much faster as well.

But finally, the washing’s all done and hung to dry, and Eddie can’t put it off any longer. He closes his eyes when he strips, but doesn’t want to open them. He doesn’t want to. He never wants to but- it’s different now. Venom has promised him. And maybe Eddie’s an idiot to trust in a demon, but God, he has _hope_. He’d rather never know, and cling to that hope, than have his fears confirmed.

Venom is watching him, can feel the churning fear and wrongness inside him. “Eddie,” so soft, so gentle, so unlike father; all warm like sinking into a warm bed. “You can open your eyes.”

“I don’t want to.” With his eyes closed, he can look like anything he wants. Eddie isn’t even sure what he wants just- not this. Not the thing he sees in the mirror. He killed Elizabeth, but he’s still living in her body.

**_Eddie_.** Firm; and his eyes open on their own.

The light’s so sudden he can’t quite see at first, he blinks, and realizes with a jolt that Venom’s faced them towards the mirror, he tries to shut his eyes again because- fuck, he hates that fucking thing at the best of times, but he can’t bear it now-

**_Eddie, look_.**

He can’t close his eyes; they’re filmed dark around the edges where Venom is forcing them open. Eddie meets his own eyes and-

“See?” Venom is curled up around his shoulders like a scarf, looking smugly pleased with himself, “It’s already better.”

Eddie can’t breathe. His tits are- well, _gone_. They’re sunken in over his chest in loose sags of skin, he presses a hand to one and it’s empty, he can trace the bones of his ribcage from under one arm to the other. “Did they taste good?” His voice wavers.

_Good_. Venom nudges the side of his head, then his tongue flashes out for a long lick. Eddie chokes down a laugh. “All of you tastes good.”

“You can have ovaries and uterus and all that shit too.” Eddie can’t help it, he’s smiling and smiling and god he’s half wondering if his face is going to crack. In the mirror, Eddie Brock is grinning like an idiot. “Free garbage no one wants.”

“Not garbage.” Venom grins back, “But that sounds good. Anything you want it replaced by?”

“Uh, yeah. I- shit. We’ll go to the library, fuck, I’ll show you _diagrams_ -“ and he can’t hold it in any more. His head thuds dully against the mirror and he’s _laughing_. It’s so much he can’t _bear it_ , great chokes of joy tearing free from his chest and huffing mist on the mirror.

There’s a bang on the door and Eddie starts back, banging against the bath and nearly falling in. “Elizabeth? What are you doing in there?”

“I- just-“ Eddie’s eyes dart around and land on his rosary. “Just praying. I- uh, I cut my hand. On a buckle. It hurt, I thought-“ Venom wraps around his mouth and he stops babbling.

“Finish in there and get dinner started. If there’s blood on your clothes, you’ll be wearing them to church, understand?”

“Yes.” Eddie ducks into the shower and pulls the tatty curtain between them. God, if he comes in, if he sees Eddie-

**_We’ll eat him_.**

“Please be quiet,” Eddie begs.

 

* * *

  

It’s not really a church, but Anne’s parents had their house consecrated against the many demons who Eddie now has to admit might actually be hanging around. It’s cramped and hot in there, they don’t have air conditioning, just fans, and even though the day’s cold and the congregation never gets above a dozen, it’s still stifling in their living room.

There’s an official church in town, several in fact, but Eddie’s never been allowed near them. Apparently, everyone who isn’t in their church worships Satan. Venom does muddle things a bit, but Eddie’s reasonably sure that’s not true. He’s doesn’t really know what other people worship, but the pictures he’d seen in books and on the school computers looked nice. Clean. Full of smiling people giving out cookies and tea.

**_Hungry_.** Venom reminds him as they sit on the floor. His father must not have consecrated the building right, because Venom doesn’t seem at all bothered by being on holy ground. He looks around from behind Eddie’s eyes, unimpressed. **_Can we sit on the chairs?_**

“No.” Eddie mumbles to the threadbare carpet. “Shut up.”

The candles are lit, Venom shivers and coils up tighter inside Eddie. “The fire?” Eddie whispers.

_Yes_. Another shudder. **_Fire. Hurts_.** A brief flash of sensation and Eddie shudders because he’s _burning_. He’s trapped, too close, too tight and it’s getting hotter and hotter and bits of melting stuff is dripping down on him and everything is pain and panic and _he’s going to die_ -

Eddie manages not to shudder, his fingers so tight on the rosary the beads have pocked little hollows in his skin. “I’m sorry.” He whispers. That was _Hell._ He saw Hell. No wonder Venom hates fire. “We won’t go near them.”

**_Thank you._ **

Anne glances at him. She’s a few spaces away, she looked tired and there are bruises on her wrists. Oh, another exorcism. Eddie looks at her curiously. He’d wondered if her parents were just paranoid about demons but- since he had one, was it impossible she had one too? It would be nice to have someone he can talk with, and maybe Venom would like to have a friend-

**_Not a demon_.**

His father starts the sermon. There’s the usual wrath of God and temptation of Satan, the horrors of the outside world just waiting for them to put a foot out of line to descend upon them with ravenous hunger. The beguiling demons and the sins of the flesh. Eddie looks down at his hands, clasped around his rosary, and feels sick because _why_? Why is this bad when it feels like the best thing that’s ever happened to him? Father goes on about the empty pleasures offered by the devil, but it doesn’t feel empty to Eddie. It feels good. God, does it feel good.

Maybe this was God’s plan? Just a little bit? He works in mysterious ways, after all. Maybe He saw Eddie was miserable and found a nice demon nearby and thought ‘hey, these two go together’, like putting together a jigsaw.

It’s a relief when father moves on to the Latin part of the service. Eddie half listens, only waiting to come in at the right moments with a Pater Noster or Agnus Dei. Venom is interested for a few moments at the unfamiliar words, but when he realizes no one speaks Latin any more he loses interest.

He perks up when Father breaks the host and calls them to the supper of the lamb. _Food, Eddie_?

“Yeah, not much.” Eddie mutters as the sidle in line to receive the host.

**_Body and blood, he said_.**

“It’s grape juice and bread.”

“Be quiet.” Annie nudges him. “Who are you talking to?”

 Eddie hesitates, about to say something, but then it’s his turn. He kneels, opening his mouth to receive communion. The wine is a drop, the cracker gone in a heartbeat. **_Is that it?_**

“Shh.” Eddie turns away.

**_Can we go now_?**

“No.”

 

* * *

 

 

They’re waiting outside for their turn at confession. Eddie sits with his back against the wall. It’s going on towards winter, but there’s still just enough warmth to feel good in the sun. He closes his eyes. Venom is pulsing, just under his clothes, basking in the heat like a cat.

A sudden cold shadow, Eddie opens his eyes, squinting against the sun. “Can I sit here?”

It’s Anne, Eddie shifts over. “If you want.” He looks at her warily, up close, she looks even worse, tired and fed up and there’s a long scratch down the side of her face, down her neck.

“I guess,” she drops her voice, “I want to say sorry. For what I said about your name. It’s a good name, and I’m not going to tell anyone.”

It’s a huge weight off his back, Eddie tries a smile. “It’s okay, but- don’t. Father-“

“Yeah.” It’s a bit hard to whisper. They can’t sit too close or someone’s going to notice and say something. Still, Anne manages a low, under her breath hiss that Eddie can just about hear. “I heard what they call you at school, and I read a bit about people like you. You want to be a boy, right?”

“No.” But it’s closer than anyone’s managed to get, apart from Venom. “I am a boy, just- something fucked up.”

Anne covers her mouth when he swears; blushes and looks around to make sure no one’s heard. “Like the people in San Francisco.”

She says it reverently, like the Holy See or Jerusalem. Eddie glances at her quizzically; father’s name for that place is the New Babylon, or Sodom, depending on his mood.

“I heard there’s loads of people like you in San Francisco,” She continues, “Boys as girls and girls as boys, and you can marry anyone there.”

Oh. That. It does sound rather like Sodom, put that way. Then again, Eddie’s the one with a demon, maybe he’d fit right in. “I’d like to see it.”

He gets a really nice smile back, like the first real sunshine after winter. Eddie can’t help but smile back. “Me too,” She whispers. She hugs herself briefly, looks away. “I never told anyone before. Mother and Father-“ she huffs, rubs her wrists over the bruises.

That’s his chance. “Have you got one?” He leans in, checking around to make sure no one’s looking.

Anne frowns at him. “Have I got a what?”

“A demon,” Eddie says quickly, “I heard you had one and I thought-“

**_Bad idea_.** Venom hisses.

But he doesn’t need Venom to say anything. Anne’s bright, open smile has slammed shut like a door in his face. Her mouth thins and she turns away. “That’s what you want to talk about?” Her voice is flat.

“Um-“ he’s fucked this up. “I just- I heard about it and it’s something that I-“

“Yeah, you and the rest of the world.” Anne gets up stiffly, brushes down her skirt. “I thought- you know, I thought you might know what it’s like to be a freakshow. Maybe I should start selling tickets.” Her eyes are red, but she’s blinking to keep the tears back. “But that would be pride, right? And I’ve got enough Ave Marias to do already. Go away Eddie.”

**_You fucked up_.** Venom informs him as Anne stalks away, into the house for her turn at confession.

“Yeah.” Eddie mutters to his knees.

**_You should apologise to her_ ,** Eddie frowns. **_She understands, and we are very alone here._**

“She’ll think I’m crazy. Anyway, you saw her, she hates me now.”

**_No._** Venom coils inside his head, warm and comforting, Eddie gives out a long sigh, exhaling the toxic mess of anger and guilt inside him. **_She still called you Eddie._**


	6. Enlightened

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie meets Carlton Drake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to dogmatix for the beta read!

Anne isn’t at school the next day, or the day after. Eddie walks past her house on the third day, but the curtains are drawn, no light from inside.  **_Where is she?_ ** Venom wonders.

“Fuck knows.” Eddie bites his lip. “She goes away, sometimes. I never asked where.”

He opens the door and his heart sinks. His father is sitting at the table in the dark, hands clasped around his rosary. He opens his eyes, ice flecks in the darkness. Eddie forces his way in, reaches for the light switch.

“No.”

He drops his hand as though burnt. Eddie feels Venom curled up tight inside him, silently furious. The hatred of a demon towards a man of God, Eddie thinks, but it doesn’t ring true. Venom’s anger isn’t for what he is, but what he does. For the fists clenched in the dim room, the hard glitter of his eyes; that cold, cutting voice. As her walks over to them. “Kneel, Elizabeth.”

Eddie closes his eyes and sinks to his knees, digging out his rosary. He spares a moment’s worry to Venom- but he’s sat through dozens of prayer sessions and it hasn’t hurt him. Besides, Eddie’s more worried about himself.

“We are beset by demons, Elizabeth.” His hand snaps on his shoulder like a trap, clenches so tight Eddie’s gritting his teeth against the pain, wheezing through the  _ Ave Maria _ . “They walk among us in human form. They cloak themselves in  _ flesh _ -“ another, tighter grip and Eddie can’t help the whine of pain. “The flesh is weak, Elizabeth. Even the strongest faith can buckle under temptation, and yours is a weak faith.”

Eddie looks up; mouth opening to protest- and his father grabs the back of his neck, forcing his head down. “The flesh is weak.” He hisses, too close. “The greatest faith can fail. The most loyal among us can fall. And if the demonic forces cannot touch our souls, they take those of the ones closest to us.”

Oh God, oh God he  _ knows _ . He knows about Venom and he’s going to kill them. He’s going to tear Venom out of him and banish him back to suffer and burn forever and he’s going to- to- Eddie doesn’t know what he’s going to do to him. But it’s going to hurt. It’s going to hurt so much. Eddie chokes, feels tears run down his face at the fingers digging into his neck, into his shoulder. Venom pushes back against them, running over Eddie’s bones as they threaten to crack under the pressure. The pain fades a little, less piercing.

“The souls of the weak.” His father continues. “The souls of the unworthy, the craven, the unfaithful. Are you unfaithful, Elizabeth?”

“No!” Eddie’s voice cracks.

“I saw you talking to the Waying girl. She’s a beautiful girl, isn’t she, Lizzy? You are unfaithful, and corrupt, and  _ polluted _ with sin-“

“No!”

“And she is  _ crawling  _ with demons, all under her skin. We purify her again and again, drive them out, but she welcomes them in with open arms and open thighs.  Do you welcome them too, Elizabeth? Do they crawl inside you?

Eddie drags in a breath, tries to clamp down on the relief building inside him. It’s not about him. It’s about Anne. “No.” He pleads.

“Pray girl! Pray for your eternal soul. They are hunting for it, unworthy as it is, corrupt as you are. Pray and let the light of God inside you. Welcome him in and let him purge out the darkness!”

Eddie hesitates- Venom-

**_Shh, it’s okay Eddie, won’t hurt us. But we can stop him. He won’t hurt us again_ ** **-**

Eddie shakes his head in a jerk, struggles through the prayer. He tries to keep his voice steady- but with enough of a tremble to seem genuine, not too fast to seem like he’s rushing, but not too slow that his father might think he’s uncertain of the words- “You are speaking the words of the Lord, Elizabeth”- probably there’s a perfect way of saying the words, a way where his father’s hand won’t continue to crush his shoulder, nails biting bloody through his clothes. He hasn’t found it yet.

He tries. He prays, again and again as his father watches and slowly, slowly the hand leaves his shoulder in a burst of aching relief. The other stays on Eddie’s neck, like he’s a disobedient dog, There’s the muted scrape of beads as his father brings out his own rosary and starts to pray too. It’s a bit too slow, a bit too steady, but Eddie can match his tempo, settle into the rhythm.

It’s an hour before Eddie can go up to bed. He checks his shoulder in the mirror, but Venom has healed the wounds and licked him clean so there isn’t even a stain, nothing to show what happened but the four little tears in his blouse, where his father’s nails had gouged through.

Venom slides out of him. “Eddie-“

Eddie shakes his head. “Please no.”

And Venom is kind, because he doesn’t say anymore. He winds long coils around Eddie and pulls him in. Eddie closes his eyes, ducks his head down to his own shoulder, and inhales the warm, crisp scent of his demon. Venom hugs him, tight and sweet, murmuring little words of nonsense in his ear. He’s okay, he’s safe, they’re together, no one will hurt him when Venom is there-

Eddie sighs, and blinks back tears. That feels so, so good.

 

* * *

 

There are strange cars in the school car park. Eddie looks at them, confused. Big, heavy SUVs, a sleek black Audi. Millionaires’ cars, and millionaires’ bodyguards’ cars. What are they doing here? Eddie feels like he’s going to be charged money for just looking at the cars, or maybe arrested.

**_Anne!_ ** Venom perks up. Eddie turns and sees her.

She’s not on her bike today, walking slowly and wearily with her head down. Eddie walks up to meet her and she raises her head when he approaches, then sighs and turns away. There are dark bags under her eyes; and mottled bruises across both wrists.

“Hey.” Eddie whispers.

“I’m really not interested, Eddie.” She lowers her head again, pushes past him.

“I’m sorry.” Eddie tries desperately. “I didn’t mean to get you in trouble. I- I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.”

Anne stops in mid-step; her shoulders rise and fall in a sigh. “Yeah, you are.” She murmurs.

“I- just wanted to talk to you.” Eddie comes up beside her. “I don’t believe you have a- you know. It was just stupid.”

“Yeah.” Anne looks up, and her mouth lifts in a weak smile. “And- it wasn’t anything to do with what you said. They just didn’t want me talking to you at all. Just- everything I do. Everything is a demon. One or another. Aquiel, Surgat, Asmodeus- I’ve got a whole crowd of them, apparently.”

“I don’t think you have.” He hesitates, wonders if he should tell her about Venom- but after the last attempt, she’d probably just think he was making fun of her. “I took notes for this week, if you want to look at them for class.”

That gets a real smile. “That’s- thanks Eddie. That’s really good. I need to keep my grades up.”

“Are you parents big on that?” Eddie’s father isn’t, Eddie isn’t sure his father even knows he does anything at school.

Anne shakes her head, but before she can say anything, the intercom crackles. “Assembly in five minutes. The whole school is to attend. Assembly in five minutes.”

Anne shoots him a questioning look, but Eddie shakes his head. “Maybe it’s to do with the cars.”

She glances at them like she's never seen them before. "Might be from the city, from San Francisco." She smiles, a bit distant, and shifts her bag uncomfortably, and Eddie can see the edge of a bruise running under her collar. 

He wants- to reach out. He wants to touch her shoulder and let Venom run under her skin and fix everything for her the way he does for Eddie because he's been there so often and now please God he never will again and he wants to  _ help _ .

Anne sees his face and shrugs, tweaking her collar to hide the bruises. "Come on, we'll be late."

They are late. Everyone is already seated when they come in, turning to stare and giggle as they fumble through the doors and try and find somewhere to sit. 

But the back seats are always filled up first, and no one will move out of the way for them to squeeze into the few middle seats, so they have to walk, red-faced and  _ burning _ with humiliation, to the front few rows left barren, and finally sit down under a host of disapproving glares from the teachers.

Finally, they're huddled and exposed in full glare of the stage. The principal is up there, and spares Eddie one last furious look for embarrassing her before turning, all smiles and star-struck eyes, to the man on stage.

"I know him." Anne whispers, tensing beside him. "That's  _ Carlton Drake _ !"

"Who?" Eddie whispers back, but the name must mean something to Venom, because he's suddenly clenched down inside Eddie's guts, coiled up so tight it feels like he's swallowed a bowling ball.

"Millionaire." Anne breathes, "From San Francisco. He funds research into medicine and new technology and he's  _ gone to space. _ " Her eyes are shining like the principal's.

Eddie looks at the guy, and maybe it's because Venom is feeling so uncomfortable, but he thinks, rebelliously, that this guy doesn't look like much to him. Slick and so perfectly dressed in his suit it looks like it's been printed on him, with an oily salesman's smirk that sets Eddie's teeth on edge. Venom uncoils a little inside him.

"We are  _ so honored _ you've come to our little local school," The principal stammers, "We couldn't believe it when we received the email! If you'd given us more warning, we could have put together a better-"

But Drake lifts a perfectly manicured hand- Eddie hates him a little more, and he feels Venom smile against his right lung- "Please, this is more than we deserve." 

We? Oh. Eddie finally notices the massed ranks of brutal men and women lining the hall. All in identical neat suits, but there's something in those clasped hands, the set of those jaws, that promise violence. Venom shivers, and Eddie presses a hand to his stomach to comfort him. They're okay. He nudges Anne and jerks his head at the massive brute with the shaved head a few feet away. Anne shrugs, "He needs bodyguards," she hisses.

Yes, but so many? Eddie forces his attention back to Drake, "-and we are planning to roll these little visits out nationwide, as part of a new investment in America's schools.  _ The future in our children _ , it'll be called. Got a nice ring to it."

The principal is almost swooning, even Anne's leaning forward in excitement and- can't they all see how fake this is? There's something so hungry in Drake's eyes, searching over and over through the hall for- what?

"And our future starts here, I am starting us on the path to the stars, but it's these young minds who'll take us the rest of the way. To places old dinosaurs like us can't even imagine."

The hall rattles with laughter. The bodyguards don't crack a smile. Eddie clenches his hands into fists and suddenly, desperately wants to be somewhere else. This is suddenly feeling dangerous.

**_Eddie_ ** \- Venom whispers. Eddie nods, rubs his stomach. They'll get out just as soon as they can, but leaving now will just make them more conspicuous.

"And even now, you can help us get a head start." Drake's eyes rake over them, Eddie sits stiff and tries to keep his face blank- although he has no idea what he's supposed to be hiding. "I sent a probe to space recently. A spaceship." He raises his eyebrows, expecting them to be impressed. "It was going to a comet, one of those big snowballs, just rushing through space. No aim, no direction, like us. But unlike it, we can change that!" 

His hand clenches, and there's something barely suppressed there, desperation just under the surface.

"We found something on that comet. Something incredible. That could change the course of life on Earth!"

Eddie couldn't move if he wanted to. Suddenly frozen to his seat.  _ No. _

"We tried to bring it back. Make a better world for everyone, but- there was a malfunction. You must have seen it on the news. The spaceship blew up, and dropped debris across the West Coast."

_ Oh God _ . Eddie can't breathe. Inside him, Venom is curled up little lump of shame.

"And maybe, just maybe, something survived from that explosion. We've been tracking the wreckage, and we believe there maybe be a survivor-"

One of the bodyguards moves, just a little, a hand twitching, and Drake calms down. He plasters on the fakest looking smile Eddie's ever seen. "Well it's very important. We've put out notices in the paper, and told all the grown-ups, but what do they know, eh?"

And they all  _ laugh _ , like he's actually making a joke, instead of- of-

_ Venom? _ He whispers in his head.

**_Yes, Eddie?_ ** Slow and reluctant, dread underpinning every word.

_ You're not _ \- he feels like an idiot, but one look at Drake's sweaty, panting face makes him continue-  _ an alien, are you? _

A pause.  **_Said I wasn't a demon_ ** .

Jesus  _ Christ _ . Eddie has to hang on to his seat to sit still against the explosion that's gone off in his stomach. He's not sure yet if it's good or bad, just- big. Too big for him to deal with. Drake's eyes bore into him, and for a mad, screaming moment, Eddie's sure he  _ knows _ . And those big men with lifeless eyes are going to grab him and pull him apart to get at Venom easy as breaking apart a doll and-

"Eddie?" Anne whispers, touching his arm, "Are you okay?"

Venom presses against something in his head, and Eddie can breathe again, the terror washing away under a flood like cool water.  _ Later _ , to Venom. "Yeah." he relaxes his grip on the chair, forces a smile. "Seriously, aliens? ET phone home?" He does the finger thing, Anne bats his hand away, but she's smiling. 

"Hey, I found a reference we both get." Eddie shrugs. Neither of them have TVs, but their elementary school used to put that movie on every time a class was cancelled. "But- come on, it's crazy."

Annie turns back to where Drake's handing the stage back to the principal. "It is weird." She murmurs. "I guess if you're that rich and powerful, you can get away with doing crazy stuff now and then." Her eyes shutter and she sighs. "Not even if you're  _ that _ rich, just powerful."

"Hey." Eddie pats her arm awkwardly. There's nothing to say because  _ he knows _ . Just power. Not even that much. Just enough power over one person and you can be as crazy as you like, they have no choice but to go along with it.

"Don't you ever get sick of it?" It's barely a whisper, but so exhausted and angry it makes Eddie flinch.  "Everything so- crazy all the time? Don't you ever wish we could just be normal for once?" The assembly is finished, and everyone starts to get up to go.

"Um-" Eddie hesitates because- no, not really. "Never really been an option for me." He waves at himself, "Not really normal but- safe." He sighs. "Safe would be nice." Venom wraps around his ribs and backbone and gives a gentle squeeze as they get up. 

Annie blinks, then gives a tired smile. "I see what you mean; and safe would be good too. But you'd like normal too, right? If you were just- a usual boy, normal family, everything?"

And that sounds about as real as Drake's stupid speech, and besides, it’s still no. Because that Eddie Brock would have about as much to do with him as Elizabeth did. Eddie can't even imagine himself as that person.

And anyway, normal would mean no Venom, and that would be-

"I guess." he says finally, because Anne does want to hear that, and maybe normal would be right for her. Not for them.

**_No._ ** Venom agrees, hugging him again. Eddie presses a hand to his chest, a warm blush of joy inside him.  **_Normal wouldn't be us._ **

It’s their turn to get up. Eddie doesn’t dare check back at the stage, or look at the goons on either side of the hall. “I’ll meet you in class.” He mumbles, “Need to just-“ He nods at the toilet, and hurries away.

No one’s there, everyone hurrying to get to class. Eddie ducks into the cubicle; put the cover down, and sits, pulling his feet up. “Vee?”

He doesn’t speak at once, Eddie can feel his reluctance, his worry at what Eddie’s going to say.  **_Should have told you_ ** . He says finally.

“Yeah.”

**_Would you have believed me if I had?_ **

“No, but you should have anyway.” Eddie rubs his legs, his fingers itching for something to do. Venom slips out of his chest and winds around his fingers, looking back at him with wide white eyes. Eddie smiles. “So, an alien, huh?”

“Yes.” Venom murmurs.

“From another planet.”

“Not a planet, a comet. Drake’s people found us there and-” he breaks off, looked away. Eddie can feel a flicker of something ashamed inside them, and stroked Venom, pulling him closer. “They wanted to go.” He says finally. “The others. They wanted to find a new planet on which to feed, to take and devour hosts and strip bare and-“ he can’t continue, the shame of it wraps around both their throats, choking.

“You wanted that?” Eddie whispers.

Venom shakes his head hard. “No! Or- I do not know. Not anymore. They were mad, anyway. They broke free in the rocket and- I don’t know what they did, but it started burning. Everyone screaming. The-“ 

A fragment of memory, smoke and fire, then a terrible  _ tearing _ as the metal skin of the rocket peeled back. He saw the pale blue-white curve of the world below- and the vacuum wrapped its jaws around him, and he was falling- falling- the glass of his tube heating red, yellow, white. Screaming as he fell, his own body burning, trapped-

Eddie jerks back, the back of his head banging against the far wall. “Vee!” Too loud. He wraps both arms around Venom and hugs him close, listening to check no one had heard.

“Sorry.” Venom murmurs against his chest. “I- landed in the field, where you found me. I thought I’d die there; the air was burning, and there wasn’t enough water.”

“Hey.” Eddie whispers and presses his cheek to Venom’s head, “You’re okay. I- I should have come sooner.”

Venom snorts, presses his forehead to Eddie’s. “You didn’t know, but you came anyway. Thank you.”

The pleasure is like a flower, blooming inside them. Demon or not, there’s the hand of God in there all the same. Pushing the two of them together so they can save each other. “I’m glad I did.” Eddie agrees. Then, “Vee?”

“Yes?”

“These other guys, are they still out there?” Vee’s a sweetheart, but other aliens might be a lot nastier- and he doesn’t want anyone to draw Drake’s attention to them.

“No. They died. I was the only one left in the tube, they- I was something of a loser to them.”

“Because you didn’t want to eat everyone?”

“Because I wanted this.” Venom wraps around his shoulders and squeezes. “A bond with a host, just like us. They thought I was weak, and- stupid for wanting it.”

“Yeah well, they’re dead, and you’re alive.”

“I know.” Venom nuzzles under his chin. “I was right. This is wonderful.” And  _ oh _ , he means it, so much. So much joy and fondness and pleasure at being with  _ Eddie _ , as though he was the best possible person in the world, to Venom.

“Hey.” Eddie whispers, pulling Venom back so he can look at him. Strangely, alienly beautiful; those milk-white eyes pearlescent from so close, his skin pulsing and moving like dark rivers. Neat rows of perfect teeth Eddie can’t quite look away from, his mouth dry, his throat tight-

The door bangs open and they both jump, Venom vanishing back inside Eddie. Someone walks in and Eddie waits until the door to the cubicle next to him clicks shut, before slipping out and hurrying back down to the class they were probably stupidly late for.

  
  



	7. Consecration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Annie, Eddie and Venom come to their own conclusions.

There’s a chorus of giggles when Eddie comes into class. The teacher gives him a disgusted, helpless look, like Eddie’s so utterly worthless she can’t even be bothered to tell him off, and wordlessly points him to his chair.

Which is taken. Michelle is in his chair, looking up at him hatefully. Eddie blinks. It’s right at the front, in full view of the teacher- no one ever wants to take that chair. Then Christie giggles from a few seats back and- right. They did this, and the teacher is going along with it because again, Eddie just isn’t worth it. Not worth even the effort so say _anything_ -

**_Eat them._** Venom grumbles inside him. **_Bite their heads off. Make a pile of each, improve the view_**.

And God, but that’s tempting. Eddie lets out his breath, there’s only one seat left, near the back, near Christie and her friends. Eddie can feel the teeth of _that_ trap, open and waiting. Everyone wants to sit near the back; everyone wants to sit with Christie and her clique. Eddie isn’t sure what they’re planning, but it’s going to hurt.

“Eddie.” Annie hisses.

Annie’s at the front too, against the wall. No one wants to sit with her too. She kicks out the chair beside her, looking at him and there’s- a hint of fear there. She’s never had anyone to sit with either, or they only did so in order to fuck with her. Eddie smiles, and walks over, sliding in the welcoming seat, the port in the storm.

“Miss!” Christie calls out. “Elizabeth’s in the wrong place.”

The teacher didn’t even turn around. “Go back to your seat, Elizabeth.”

Eddie hesitates, and Annie shakes her head. Puts her hand on his, pressing it to the desk.

It’s like a shock of lightning, that touch. The warm roughness of her hand, worn from washing and cleaning, like his, the nails bitten down and ragged, the bruises at her wrist.

It’s the first time he’s been touched by another human being, and it didn’t hurt. Only his heart doesn’t seem to have caught up with the last bit and it’s screaming at Eddie to _run_ , to curl into a ball and cover the vulnerable bits before the blows come. He starts to shake, heart banging harder and harder. Annie snatches her hand back, “Sorry.”

The teacher turns around. “Elizabeth-“ She looks at Eddie, at Michelle in his chair, at the only empty seat in the back. She gives an exhausted sigh.

“She’s helping me, miss.” Annie puts in quickly, “Because I missed so many lessons.”

And for once, the weary disgust works for him, because the teacher just shakes her head. “No more seat swaps. Where you’re sitting now is where you’ll be sitting for the rest of the year.”

Michelle jerks in shock, and spins around, hissing something furious at Christie. Christie snarls something back and they have a hushed, furious argument before the teacher slams her hands down hard on her desk, making everyone jump. “Enough! Eyes on the board, get to work!”

Eddie ducks over his book; leans over to help Annie find where they are. Christie’s eyes are burning into the back of his neck.

 

* * *

 

 

And that’s how every class goes. Every time they come in, Annie leads them over to her desk, and they sit together. At lunch, they go in together, get lunches side by side, eat together in the corner of the canteen. Christie and her friends glower at them as they pass, but don’t do anything. Maybe two are harder to deal with that one.

**_Prey animals_**. Venom murmurs, amused.

He’s not wrong. Safety in numbers, in their little herd of three. Annie doesn’t try to touch him again, to Eddie’s relief. She’s looking better too, smiling a little when they go back to class together. A little of the tension in her shoulders relaxing as Eddie leans on the locker next to hers, waiting for her to get her books. But sometimes, her hand comes a little too close to his arm, she leans in a bit too close as they walk and her wrist threatens to nudge his and Eddie recoils, almost slamming into the opposite wall- and her smile fragments, fading and she looks away.

“I’m sorry.” Eddie whispers.

Annie shakes her head, and they walk into the classroom.

**_Are you?_ **

Eddie blinks, slides into his new seat besides Annie. “What?” He mouths, under his breath.

**_Are you sorry? That she can’t touch you?_ **

_Yes_ hovers on the tip of his tongue- and crumbles. Maybe, theoretically, for an Eddie Brock that isn’t him. For the Eddie Brock who is, Eddie can’t be sorry. Human touch has been so negative for so long Eddie can’t even remember a touch that didn’t hurt. “No.”

**_And us? Does it hurt you when it’s us?_ **

Human touch. And Vee isn’t human. His touch soft and slippery without being wet, smooth and gentle as the silk ribbon on his best hat. Tender, a kindness Eddie has never known and can accept because it’s something so new. Safe.

“No.” Eddie smiles, presses nails into the tender skin at his wrist until Venom wells up and threads long claws between his fingers. Holding his hand. Eddie closes his eyes, smile widening. God, that’s good.

“Eddie?” Eddie opens his eyes, Annie is looking at him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” He sits up, and opens his book, “We had a review last lesson, and we’re starting a new unit, so I think you’re okay there-“

 

* * *

 

 

Annie doesn’t leave his side, even when school ends. Walking out with him into the street, even as Eddie looks up and down the sidewalk desperately, “If someone from home sees us-“

“I don’t care.” Annie’s mouth is thin as a knife blade. “Let them look. What can they do that they haven’t already done?”

_A lot_. Father’s hands, father’s fists. Father’s fingers knotted around his throat-

**_No Eddie!_ **

Maybe Annie can think that. Maybe she’s going to be tied up and exorcised anyway, so why not do whatever you want? But Eddie can’t. Eddie knows just how bad it can get.

Annie looks away and closes her eyes, exhausted. “Oh, come on, Eddie. Don’t you want this? Just to be normal, for once in a while? Just a boy and a girl, going home.”

“We can’t have that.” Eddie whispers. “I- God, Annie. You know my father. You know what he’s- what he’d do.”

“I want it.” Annie chokes. She rubs her eyes furiously. “I just want something _real_ , not just demons and sin and hell day after day. Everyone else has this, why not us?”

“I don’t know!” Eddie wants to scream. “But it is, and- Annie, they think, everyone thinks-“ he looks around, but they’re around a corner, the trees pressing close and shading them. “I’m a girl, to them. Two girls. Going out together-“

“You’re not a girl.” Annie pleads.

“Great. You know what Christie and her bunch call me. And that’s _them_ , the _normal people_. What are they going to do if they find out at home?”

“But you still do it. You don’t let them stop you, you cut your hair, you changed your name; _Eddie_.”

“I-“ _don’t have a choice_. But then, does Annie? Eddie can keep his head down, pretend, wear dresses and be the perfect, demure little girl. Annie can’t. Her parents scream demons every time she breathes out of turn.

And suddenly Eddie- is so blindingly and utterly _sick of it_. Sick of this world, mad and twisted. Of the terror of every moment, waiting for something to go wrong. Of being so fucking _scared_ all the time.

“What do you want to do?” He sighs, exhausted. “Have sleepovers? Come to dinner? Go to prom together?”

“Are you asking me?” Annie stops, looking at him, challenging.

He should say no. He should shut it down, laugh at the absurdity. But there’s something in Annie’s eyes, brittle and daring. This is going to hurt but maybe- it’ll be worth it.

Eddie closes his eyes, and dares to dream. Prom is next week. Annie in one of those floofy prom dresses, him in a tux. Taking her out in a sleek red car- no, a _motorbike_ , cool and racy. Dinner at a nice restaurant, then to the school for the dances, all of them seeing them. Annie the beautiful girl, Eddie handsome boy. Pulling Annie close, spinning her around on the dance floor-

And somehow, _that’s_ the most impossible part of all of it. His hand, touching Annie’s arm. Venom nudges his mind, and suddenly he’s wearing black gloves, Venom pressing close, keeping him safe. Always, keeping him safe.

“We can do this.” Annie whispers.

With Venom, maybe they can. God, couldn’t they have this? For one moment, everyone to see them as who they are. Everyone has this, why can’t they? Eddie opens his eyes and Annie is looking at him with so much hope. God, it’s madness, but he can’t break that hope. He smiles, and drops down on one knee.

Annie jumps back in surprise, a bright little cry of happiness. Eddie reaches for her- and stops, hands hovering close but not quite touching. Annie smiles, and pulls her sleeves down over her hands. Eddie takes her hands. He’s not sure how to do this, but it’s worth a try. “Annie Waying, would you come to the prom with me?”

And Annie smiles, so vivid and beautiful it’s like sunlight breaking through clouds. She draws in a breath, as though she had been drowning for so long, and just now breaking the surface. “Eddie- Yes, I-“

“What. The. Freak.”

Eddie staggers up, heart racing- but it’s Christie, with Michelle and a guy that’s probably a boyfriend. Eddie draws in a breath- okay, this is bad, but it’s not _bad-bad_ , they can deal with this. “Fuck off.” He snaps.

“Did you think she was a _boy_?” Christie is looking at Annie in disbelief. “Tranny Lizzie? Are you fucking _nuts?_ ”

“She’s got like a million demons inside her,” Michelle crosses her arms. “They’re all fucking nuts.”

“Nah,” The guy shakes his head. “They’re just _dykes_ , right? Two dykey freaks- hey, I bet she’s the one with a dick.” He points at Annie. Her face is burning, tears brimming in her eyes.

The two girls shriek with laughter. “Oh god, you’re right! Hey, Devil-Annie, show us your dick-” “I bet you want to suck that shemale dick, right trannie Lizzie-” “You’re so fucking sick, they should put that sort of _thing_ down-“

Eddie’s fists clench. Annie is screaming something, lost in the jeers, in the ringing in his ears. He wants to run in, knock them down and punch and kick and _hurt_ , make them feel what he feels like right now.

But they’re close now, circling around them. Christie and Michelle are bigger than them, well fed and muscled from sport and regular meals, and the guy is almost twice as broad as Eddie, massive footballer’s shoulders and big meaty hands clenched into hungry fists.

Annie’s shouts stifle into nothing as she realizes they’re about to be very badly hurt. Fear in her eyes. Eddie should be scared too, should be terrified. Not just for what’s about to happen, but for what will come later, coming home bloody and beaten, with torn clothes. He should be scared.

He isn’t. He’s _furious_. The world fades into a blood-red haze and Eddie feels Venom boil inside him like a kettle about to blow. “Will all of you **_FUCK OFF_**!”

Venom roars out with the last two words, Eddie tastes teeth, the weight of a massive tongue in his mouth. The words crack out, deafeningly loud and deep, like a lion that had learn to talk.

The three stop dead; freeze in place. Maybe it’s the words. Maybe they saw the teeth. It’s the moment they need. Annie grabs Eddie’s arm and runs. Shoes clattering over the tarmac as they dodge across the road the through the trees back to the main road, Eddie’s bag slams into his ribs, keeping time with his head, his beating feet. His breath comes fast at first, but then Venom is there, bleeding air into his lungs, filling his muscles and keeping him going easily.

They slow after a few blocks. They’re alone. “Wow.” Annie pants, doubling over to catch her breath. “You- I didn’t know you could do that. Sound like that.”

“Uh.” Eddie hesitates. “I’ve been- practicing. You know, to sound like a guy.”

“Guys don’t usually sound like that.” She straightens, leans on the wall. “You sounded amazing.”

The moment stretches, Eddie hesitates, doubt hovering inside him. “Annie-“

“So, prom,” Annie looks at him, eyes steely. “I know you can’t pick me up, so how about I meet you halfway, outside number forty nine?”

Okay, they are still doing this. “At six o’clock?”

Annie smiles. “Yeah, that’s good.”

 

* * *

 

 

They make a quick stop in the rabbit field so Venom can feed. He is strangely quiet, a little slower than usual in snapping up the careless rabbits, a touch reluctant on chewing down on the limp bodies.

“Vee?” Eddie sits down as Venom finishes. “You okay?”

And he isn’t, because usually, Venom stays out for Eddie to pick his teeth clean of bits of bones and fur. This time, he sweeps straight back inside, the scraps of rabbit falling to the ground. “Hey! What’s wrong?”

He doesn’t get an answer. He can feel Venom, coiled inside his ribcage, touching Eddie’s lungs at the top of each breath. “It’s okay.”

It isn’t. He can’t feel something’s wrong, but not what. Eddie gets up to go, and sighs, deep enough he can stroke Venom inside him. _It’s okay_ he thinks as loud as he can, and Venom gently strokes his lung in return.

Father doesn’t seem to be home when they come in. Eddie doesn’t dare check too closely, creeping up the stairs and slipping into his room. It’s not much of a sanctuary, but it’s something. A door between them and the world. Eddie lies on his bed and closes his eyes. “What is it, Vee?”

For a moment, there’s nothing. Then he’s back in the prom. Holding Annie with Venom covering his hands, spinning her around. There’s a bitter and miserable taste in the back of his mouth, something Venom feels and hates that he’s feeling. “You don’t want me to go?”

Yes. No. Something in between. It’s not words, just a flood of emotions. Again, the focus on the three of them. Eddie, Venom, Annie. _Three_.

Oh.

Eddie hesitates, and changes the picture. Annie laughs and spins away, waving and going to get a glass of punch. Eddie holds out a hand, and Venom pours out of his fingers, forming into a vaguely human form in front of him. His hands on Eddie’s, his mouth drawn back into a thousand-toothed smile, white eyes glimmering. Eddie smiles back; and they dance.

Venom sinks further and further down inside Eddie, settling somewhere under his intestines. He’s wretched and humiliated. “You want this?” Eddie whispers.

**_…yes._ **

It’s like a dam broke, a blur of jealousy and anger and self hate for wanted this _so badly_. The _stupidity_ of it; with Drake so close and dangerous, with Eddie’s father mad and hungry for pain. And still, the desperate, wailing _want_ , the need to be closer, forever closer to a being he is already as close to as any two creatures can be. Like a hunger he cannot sate, a wild, craving _desire_ -

Eddie can’t quite breathe. This is what he has been warned about, the temptation to sin. Here it is, with open arms, drawing him down like a welcoming sea, washing him down and enveloping him completely. Every warning he had been given, forced, beaten into him. Here, right in front of him.

Eddie swallows. “Come on.” He beckons.

Venom is very still, a soundless **_…?_**

“Come out.” Eddie pleads. “Come on, I want to see you, please-“

And Venom ebbs out of him, slowly welling out of his chest, a deep, sleek shimmer of black; his shimmering, pearlescent eyes form, but not his mouth, hiding his teeth. “Come on,” Eddie coaxes, “All of you.”

The teeth slide free, but it’s not a smile, not yet. Eddie smiles, smiles even though his heart _hurts_ , a deep longing ache. Something he’d wanted for so long, and never imagined he could have. “Hey.” He whispers. “You’re beautiful.”

Venom blinks; the trembling thread of hope lighting inside him, and Eddie leans in, pressing his lips to Venom’s teeth.


End file.
